Pests cause millions of human deaths around the world each year. Furthermore, there are more than ten thousand species of pests that cause losses in agriculture. These agricultural losses amount to billions of U.S. dollars each year. Termites cause damage to various structures such as homes. These termite damage losses amount to billions of U.S. dollars each year. As a final note, many stored food pests eat and adulterate stored food. These stored food losses amount to billions of U.S. dollars each year, but more importantly, deprive people of needed food.
Many pesticide compositions have been developed over time to destroy pests and alleviate the damages they cause. With respect to at least some of these compositions, physical and chemical instabilities can lead to a reduction in pesticidal activity of the composition and/or present complications when it comes time to apply the composition to a locus where pest control is necessary or desired. For example, physical and chemical instabilities can alter one or more properties of the composition which make it difficult or impossible to prepare appropriate solutions of the composition for use. More particularly, many pesticide compositions are provided in a concentrated formulation from the manufacturer and are subsequently diluted by an end user before their application. During the time between manufacture and application, liquid forms of pesticide compositions can solidify as a result of chemical and physical instabilities of the composition. Often times, this solidification prevents or substantially impedes the dispersion of the composition into a solution suitable for application, resulting in greater user burden and cost and/or wasted pesticide products. Moreover, when physical and chemical instabilities lead to a reduction in pesticidal activity of a composition, an increase in the concentration at which the pesticide is applied and/or more frequent applications of the pesticide composition are often required. As a result, user costs and the cost to consumers can escalate. Therefore, a need exists for new pesticide compositions that exhibit increased chemical and physical stability properties.
U.S. Patent Application Publication 2007/0203191 A1 describes certain N-substituted (6-haloalkylpyridin-3-yl)alkyl sulfoximine compounds and their use in controlling insects. It has now been discovered how to improve the stability of compositions including one or more of these compounds over greater periods of time.